Innovation Strategies in Diverse Institutional Settings: Conceptual Linkages and Interactions

Abstract

For decades, scholars have advocated different and sometimes contrasting understandings of what innovation strategy (and innovation in general) is or should be. This resulted in the increasing amount of fragmented research, often based on one-dimensional typologies of innovation strategies. Today, we can see a growing need for sorting out the overlapping concepts and exploring their interactions in this fast developing field of research. Hence, the paper is aimed at establishing the conceptual linkages between the different innovation modes and strategies, as well as the diverse institutional settings for innovation-based activities. First, the presentation is based on an exploratory research, which is then supplemented by comparative qualitative analysis with other, previously distinguished, types of innovation and innovation strategy. This allows for refinement of the results of the exploratory research and purification of the types of innovation strategy. Finally, the indicated types of innovation strategy are analyzed in light of major theoretical approaches, which provide with some clues to drivers of either type of innovation strategy of a firm. Nevertheless, the internecine complementarities between the different conceptual angles, as well as some characteristics of the distinguished types of innovation strategy, lead to an assumption that the innovation strategies might be complementary as well. Therefore, the indicated types of innovation strategies of firms call for empirical validation in future research. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.77.3.2773